Memo from Nikki Haley ahead of New Hampshire: 'We're not going anywhere'
Nikki Haley's campaign has a message for anyone who declares her presidential bid all but over if she loses to Donald J. Trump in New Hampshire on Tuesday.
“We're not going anywhere,” Ms. Haley's campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, wrote in a memo on the path forward for Ms. Haley, first provided to The New York Times.
In the memo, Ms. Ankney described how Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former ambassador to the United Nations, outlasted all other candidates for her one-on-one shot at Trump and would not be deterred from advancing to fight. , even as “members of Congress, the press, and many of the weak guys who ran for president give up and give in.”
The memo reads like a direct response of sorts to the Trump campaign's ongoing efforts to make its exit from the race feel inevitable, if not immediate.
Ms. Haley herself, in an appearance Tuesday on Fox Newssaid she would stay inside regardless of the outcome.
“No, I won't get over it if I lose today,” Ms. Haley said. “Again, I'm going to say this: 56,000 people voted for Donald Trump, and you're going to say this is what the country wants? That is not what the country wants.”
In the memo, Ms. Ankney sought to undermine the argument, as she put it, that “New Hampshire is 'the best money can get' for Nikki because independent and unaffiliated voters can vote in the Republican primaries. ”
After New Hampshire, where voting is underway, the next major clash for the two candidates would take place in South Carolina in a month's time, on February 24, after a minor battle for delegates in the US Virgin Islands on February 8.
Ms. Ankney noted that there is no party registration in South Carolina, meaning anyone who does not vote in the Democratic primary on February 3 will be able to vote in the Republican primary later in the month. More importantly, she pointed out that 11 of the 16 states voting on Super Tuesday have “open or semi-open primaries” that independent voters can be part of and are “fertile ground for Nikki.”
“Until then, everyone should take a deep breath,” Ms. Ankney wrote. “The campaign hasn't even started in any of these states yet. No advertisements have been aired and the candidates are not on the ground. A month in politics is a lifetime. We see democracy in action. We give the people a voice. That's how this is supposed to work.”
Ms. Ankney named Virginia, Texas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina and Vermont as Super Tuesday states with “favorable demographics,” noting that Michigan, which votes after South Carolina, is also an open primary state.
“After Super Tuesday we will have a very good idea of where this race stands,” she wrote.
Of course, all campaigns say they'll keep going until they don't. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had planned an event in New Hampshire on Sunday that he only canceled after withdrawing from the race, as seen in a video recorded in Florida.
Ms. Haley has a number of fundraisers planned in California, Florida, New York and Texas in the coming weeks, and has already booked a $4 million television buy in South Carolina.
Mr Trump's campaign has increased pressure on Ms Haley to quit the race if she performs poorly.
The Trump campaign's top two advisers, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, released a memo on Sunday after Mr. DeSantis ended his campaign, arguing that Ms. Haley must “win New Hampshire” to remain viable.
If she stays in the race through her home state of South Carolina, they warned, she would be “absolutely SHIT and EMBARRASSED,” using capital letters for emphasis.
Ms. Ankney seemed to respond in her message, using her own capital letters to make one final point about the Republican Party choice: “DO REPUBLICANS WANT TO WIN?”
“See you in South Carolina,” the memo ends.